2011-07-23

There are many that think that a world without any sort of monetary system would be a much better world. This is the key concept of a Resource Based Economy. It is my opinion that the present monetary system is just a paradigm, a model. Therefore it is subjected to a shift. And a Global Virtual Currency ( not necessarily Bitcoin ) could be a good entry point for the shift to occur. But it needs to be available for everybody for a Resource Based Economy to take place !!

I am working on this. Stay tuned. More to come soon, now I am tired !!

Too many people have died. Too many dreams have been broken. Too many life, of those who have survived, most probably, scarred forever.

WHO did this ?

Apparently a young Norwegian man aged 31, managed to accomplish such a massacre. A man with a lucid mind, yet totally insane. He declared that a man with a believe is stronger that 100,000 people.

YES, IDIOT, THAT IS ABSOLUTELY TRUE !!!!! BUT YOU WERE WEARING A XXXXX GUN TO DELIVERY YOUR BELIEVES TO OTHERS !!!!!

I have decided to change my blog title from "New World Economy" into "Social Innovation" in the hope that I would be able to give my humble contribute to the global change expected and desired by many with my future posts.

OK, I though a lot about the last posts, and I think it all boils down to this.

Facts
Every living system and living ecosystem on Earth is in a state of decline, due to our economic activities. There is no debate about that, every scientific paper published in the last 30 years confirms it. It's abundantly clear that a different approach is to be put in place.

Proposals
I propose we try to approach the problems scientifically, evaluate what causes negative retroactions, try to prevent them through education, non violent and non coercive manners, strive for a dynamic equilibrium with nature, use a systemic approach and adapt our ways of lives so that they are aligned with what the planet can provide, in order to ensure our long term survival.

I am seeing this wrong? (Of course you are going to say yes straight away, but think about it for a few days, then come back and tell me).

Michele1940 Answer:

Well here we have : misaligned incentives, negative externalities that cause negative retro actions. Can't the common cause of all this be called greediness ?

Seeking for a dynamic equilibrium with nature is definitely a good path to follow. Since from nature itself we can actually see that there are no misaligned incentives, no negative externalities and , therefore no greediness. Nature appears to evolve by itself in a way that the whole ecosystem is always in a state of development ( evolution ) rather than declining.

Economic activities are not a natural process. But, by all means, are perpetuated by Humans since " Illo Tempore ".

Humans are surely part of the natural ecosystem of this planet. And surely denote a much higher degree of awareness as compared to any other natural kingdom. Also they denote a freewill that allows them, for example, to elaborate economic activities able to "alter" the whole ecosystem.

In seeking for this "miraculous" to happen, that we can all live a sustainable life by better rationing all available resources and bla bla bla, we should not forget, in my opinion, that this freewill, is applicable also to the individuals. Therefore making each of us capable of taking different decisions.

The main problem than, melts down to a matter of awareness : if you are not aware that you are doing something wrong, how can you possibly decide to do it in a different way ?

The above is my attempt to give a sort of "scientific" explanation. But I would have preferred a more philosophical one

2011-07-07

These are two abstracts taken from two different articles posted on Twitter by :

@ViewsHound & @bitcoinmedia

Thanks to both for shearing this.

"A politico named Charles Schumer wants to evaluate, regulate or shut down Bitcoin because “The only method of payment for illegal purchases is an untraceable peer-to-peer currency known as Bitcoins.” [Quoted]@ViewsHound

"Maybe you want to avoid bank interchange fees, or perhaps avoid tracking altogether because your payment is for something illegal, or because you're a particular private person. Or perhaps you just think that the world currency regime is going to collapse and you see Bitcoin as a technological salvation. " [Quoted]@bitcoinmedia (original article was different)

Is it legal to sell key to activate Windows XP Professional Edition or for any other software ?

In addition those key codes can be found for free easily. Looks more like a scam to me.

I have nothing personal at all against bitcoinharbor, which I consider to be an excellent idea, but better check if the advertisers are actually doing this according to legislation or not. We do not want people to think like the two abstracts above. Do we ?

I might be wrong on my assumpion and, in case, I apologise with bitcoinharbor

2011-07-06

There are a lot of talk going on around the world about virtual currency such as Bitcoins and others.

Many are arguing that virtual currency is a reality and that it's here to stay. I personally agree with this proposition but virtual currency shouldn't be used as an alternative store of value asset only.

Bitcoin is probably the most known and talked virtual currency in these days. From what we can see in the exchange markets, that have been created to trade Bitcoin, there is a lot of daily activity in the trading environment.

What we cannot see is a similar activity in the retail environment either for on-line or real world transactions. Aside from a few examples, this virtual currency does not seem to be taking off.

What are the reasons for this ? Well there are many.

First of all, aside from the early adapters , "mining" Bitcoin for the individual has become a difficult task.
This means that if you want to have some of this Bitcoin , you can exchange them for your fiat currency on the exchange markets. So you have to take some of your stored "real money" and use them to store them again into Bitcoin. Unless, of course, you have a real intention to use this Bitcoin to buy something that you like and you need/want to buy.

Second, why do you have to convert your "real money" into Bitcoin if you need/want to buy something ? Because Bitcoin allows you and the seller to have a cost free transaction in the same way you would have if you would hand over your cash money to the vendor. In addition handling cash money is also a cost both for you and the vendor.

Third, is the vendor giving you any additional advantage if you pay in Bitcoin like, for example, a small discount ? Not that I am aware of. But might be possible that same are doing it. What I know for sure is that if you pay with real cash money instead of your credit card, you have a very high possibility to get a small discount if you dare asking for it.

Fourth, there are the exchange markets that makes the conversion rate change and it is difficult for you and the vendor to forecast its future value. You may exchange your "real money" into Bitcoin today or you can accept a payment in Bitcoin as a vendor today at a fixed current rate and find out a few days later that the value of Bitcoin has dropped. Or it has increased. This uncertainty, surely complicates the matter even more. Unless you see into Bitcoin a form of investment in the hope that its value will go sky high someday.

Many might argue that even your "real money" are subject to the same process described above.
All fiat money of course are subjected to inflation and deflation. And the conversion rate between them vary daily. Some might also argue that fiat money might collapse and that you would end up having a bank account filled up with numbers that have no purchase value at all.

So, it seems that what we need for a virtual currency to become a usable currency is a sort of stability of its value. In order to accomplish this, we have to reduce the trading and increase the actual use of our beloved virtual currency.

There are many that think that a world without any sort of monetary system would be a much better world. This is the key concept of a Resource Based Economy. It is my opinion that the present monetary system is just a paradigm, a model. Therefore it is subjected to a shift. And a Global Virtual Currency ( not necessarily Bitcoin ) could be a good entry point for the shift to occur. But it needs to be available for everybody for a Resource Based Economy to take place !!

2011-07-03

Mining does not bring any sort of benefit for the individual. Therefore you need to buy using fiat money BTCs and at the end of the game someone needs to sell BTcs for fiat money. This is far from being an ecosystem that can survive outside today’s economy which is based on fiat money.

2011-07-01

In Part three, I have presented how the ecosystem of the web currently works. Of course in a very broad fashion....

Here, I would like to move a bit forward explaining how the whole system could be changed.

Any new product, app, partnership that is being presented to the public by the Big Guys, is nothing else but a way to attract more users, keeping the existing ones from migrating to other web based platforms, with the sole intent to generate more and more traffic on their sites. Thus attracting more Ads.

This is absolutely normal for a big publisher like Google or Facebook & CO. They are constantly looking to generate more profit. They need to do this. Among other reasons, they surely need to generate an up trend profit in order to pay the salary to the many thousands of people working for them.

The actual Resource they are benefiting from are, obviously, the USERS of the web !! So Humans.